Pawn 101: Market St. is not Canal St.

Canal Street in Manhattan, just below Union Square, is a famous, or infamous shopping district where you can find knockoffs of Prada, Gucci, Coach and every other kind of high-end designer merchandise.

At Kamaaina Loan, we make loans on (or buy outright) Prada, Gucci, Coach and other kinds of high-end designer merchandise. But not if we spot that it came from Canal St., or someplace like it.

Can you spot the knock-off? We have resources that help us tell the authentic goods from the fakes, even if you cannot.

So two points:

1. If you want to borrow $100 against that Louis Vuitton handbag, we can accommodate you, probably, but not over the phone. We have to inspect it to see that it’s the real LV.

That’s why we cannot offer estimates over the phone for anything.

2. If you see a designer watch, bag etc. in one of our 5 retail stores — and at an unbelievably great price — it’s not because it’s a fake. If we sell it, we’ve checked and believe it to be authentic.

Our prices are great because our prices are great